Waste Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: WSII) is strengthening its Florida presence with a $75 million purchase of a C&D landfill, two transfer stations and a collection company on the Gulf Coast. Waste Services established a beachhead in Florida back in 2003 with its $120 million acquisition of northern and central Florida assets from Allied Waste Industries. The new purchases come from two smaller firms and are to be paid in cash. David Sutherland-Yoest, Chairman and CEO said that the company expects to internalize 100% of the acquired collection volumes and that the purchase will contribute about $12 million to annual EBITDA...Read More »

AIG Highstar Capital, which is an investor in North East Waste Services and Advanced Disposal Services, has acquired New York based Interstate Waste Services, Inc. from a seller group that includes Summer Street Capital Partners LLC and Ironwood Capital. IWS, which serves 21 municipalities in Northern New Jersey and the lower Hudson Valley in New York, processes roughly 3,400 tons per day through its network of transfer stations and MRF. Those operations are expected to dovetail nicely with those of North East Waste Services, the combination of which will create the largest privately held, vertically integrated waste business in the northeast US...Read More »

Officials for the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA) proudly announced a deal whereby methane from its landfills in Kent and Sussex counties will be used to produce 7.4 megawatts of electricity or enough to power 4,500 homes. The gas will be converted to electricity via seven generators to be operated by Framingham, Mass.-based Ameresco. Constellation Energy will purchase the electricity under a 10-year agreement. Under Delaware law, power providers are required to have 10 percent of their energy portfolio from renewable resources by 2019. DSWA Chairman Richard Pryor called the project a "win-win for the environment and the community." Producing that amount of electricity at a power plant would use more than 1,500 rail cars of coal and create about 60,000 tons a year of greenhouse gases, he said...Read More »

Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid, a foe of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, is about to become Senate majority leader. This gives him control over which legislation reaches the Senate floor and he could effectively cripple the project. Controversies and lawsuits have pushed the opening date from 1998 to 2017. The project has already cost $6.5 billion, and costs are now projected to exceed $70 billion to construct and operate the dump for the first 100 years...Read More »

WCA Waste Corporation (Nasdaq: WCAA) has added two distinguished gentlemen to its Board of Directors. Both men are former directors of TransAmerican Waste Industries and hail from the University of Texas at Austin. Preston Moore is President of Wilson Industries and has served as an assistant secretary for the US Department of Commerce. Judge John V. Singleton was until 1992, the Chief Judge of the US Southern District Court. He is currently also on the Board of Directors of the Central National Bank in Houston, Texas...Read More »

BioIonix, a small firm incorporated in 2005, says that it has developed a new technology to clean wastewater. The process kills most of the bacteria in various kinds of liquid waste by treating it with a high-frequency electromagnetic field...Read More »

A Pennsylvania State University environmental engineering professor has proposed a new use for scrap tires. Researcher Yuefeng Xie said the tires can be ground into 'crumb rubber' and used as a wastewater filtering device. He not only stated that crumb rubber would be more effective than traditional methods, but that it would be cheaper and would recycle scrap tires, as an added benefit. He added that because they are light and produce higher filtration rates, crumb rubber filters might also be used in mobile water treatment units...Read More »

E-waste recycling is proving to be hard to regulate. Much of it may be sent overseas to be recycled improperly. The state of California offers rebates to e-waste recyclers but must monitor overbilling and fraud. Regulating where the e-waste is recycled is more difficult because international shipping is controlled by the federal government and because state governments do not have the resources to send regulators to monitor e-waste recycling companies...Read More »

Anthony Richardi, and his company, Earth Technology II LLC, recently pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and have agreed to pay at least $500,000 in fines. They admitted to inflating charges to state and federal agencies for environmental cleanup work at the contaminated Hull Dye site in Derby between 1999 and 2002...Read More »

Waste Management Canada is pleased to have received the Wildlife Habitat Council's (WHC) International Accreditation for eight of its landfill sites across Canada. The accreditation recognizes commendable wildlife habitat management and environmental education programs at the individual sites. Waste Management has worked hard of late to bolster its reputation as an environmentally friendly company...Read More »

Greystone Logistics, Inc., formerly known as Palweb Corporation, announced that the Coors Brewing Company is purchasing the company's plastic pallets made from 100% recycled material. Coors is transitioning to this new platform to transport many of their products throughout the United States. The plastic pallets are more durable, hygienic, and environmentally friendly as they divert material otherwise destined for a landfill...Read More »